Moon Knight's Dark Future Confirms the Twisted Cost of Escaping Khonshu

When Marc Spector was given a second chance at life thanks to the moon god Khonshu, he became his eternally indebted servant as Moon Knight, but their relationship has become anything but positive over the years. Because of this, it's no surprise that Spector shed the presence of the Egyptian god when he finally got the chance, but the result of their separation was truly shocking.

Marvel's depiction of Moon Knight's relationship with Khonshu has varied over the years, with the ancient god suggested as everything from ally to abuser to a symptom of mental illness. However, what remains true is that he sees Marc Spector as a vessel of his will - one in a long and ancient line of Moon Knights who have served the god since humanity first worshiped the moon. Marc may have been given a second chance at life by Khonshu, but it is a life lived as the fist of a cruel and vengeful god.

In Moon Knight: Black, White and Blood #2's 'The Empty Tomb,'' by Benjamin Percy and Vanesa R. Del Rey, Marc Spector is desperate to rid himself of Khonshu for good, no matter what the consequences. Tired of the torture of Khonshu in his mind, constantly talking in Marc's head and using him to do his Godly bidding, he reaches out to Doctor Strange for a way to expel the Moon god for good. Despite warnings from Strange that following through with his plan might leave him as nothing more than a husk, Marc uses a mystic scarab to break his bond with Khonshu. As it turns out, the result is worse than even Strange could have predicted: Spector is left hospitalized in a catatonic state, unable to move or even speak coherently. Despite this, Marc is pleased with the result, happy to finally "enjoy the quiet."

The lengths that Marc went to in order to part with Khonshu, and the results, show just how devastating their deal has been for the Moon God's avatar. Despite knowing the risks, he chooses to go through with separating from Khonshu for good. Marc even admits that the decision is somewhat selfish, noting that his suffering has greatly lessened the suffering of others, and that he would have died a long time ago if not for Khonshu's interference. Even so, Marc has been so fully broken and abused by Khonshu he sees no other option. His conversation with Strange is especially heart-breaking. As he tells the sorcerer his plan, Stephen looks in his tired, bloodshot eyes and knows he can't be talked out of it.

In the end, Marc's decision to rid himself of Khonshu despite the devastating cost is one that all too many people can relate to. While this fictionalized world shows a man dealing with the despicable whims of a god, at its roots, it shows someone being broken by a serial abuser. Marvel giving fans a glimpse into this harrowing decision shows the toll it can take to lose one's sense of independence and agency, and how at his core, Marc Spector is willing to sacrifice everything but that freedom to finally end his career as the Moon Knight.

Captain Marvel’s Ultimate Weapon is Actually Another Avenger

While it has been established in the Marvel Universe that Captain Marvel is a one-person army capable of eliminating even the strongest cosmic threats, she reveals that her greatest weapon isn’t her energy projection of invulnerability to most attacks but is actually her professional relationship with another Avenger.

Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel after she was exposed to a Kree device that activated the cosmic powers that were previously dormant inside her body–powers she inherited from her Kree mother. Those abilities include flight, energy manipulation and absorption, photon blasts, and self sustenance just to name a few. Basically, Carol Danvers became untouchable. When Danvers first became a hero, she went by the codename Ms. Marvel before taking up the mantle of Captain Marvel following the death of her longtime friend and mentor, Mar-Vell. After fully coming into her own as a hero, Captain Marvel became one of, if not the strongest Avengers. Moreover, with the seemingly perpetual assistance of one of her fellow teammates, she is made even stronger.

In Captain Marvel #29 by Kelly Thompson and Jacopo Camagni, Carol Danvers tracks down a villainous sorcerer in the hopes that she will teach her magic after Captain Marvel was denied that request by every other magic user on Earth. The person she goes to see is Enchantress who is immediately taken aback by Captain Marvel’s presence before her, especially in a situation where Carol is asking for her help. When Enchantress presses the Avenger on how she found her, as Enchantress has made significant efforts to stay hidden from the Avengers, Carol bluntly answers, “I find it hilarious you think Thor–King of Asgard, All-Father, God of Thunder, and more recently Herald of freaking Galactus–doesn’t know exactly where you are, Enchantress.”

What is interesting about Captain Marvel’s answer is that she brings up Thor without provocation, indicating that she has seemingly unlimited access to Thor’s knowledge of the whereabouts of any villain she wishes to find. Plus, Thor is evidently willing to divulge that information to Captain Marvel without question. Carol looking for Enchantress in an effort to learn magic should have brought up some red flags within the Avengers, especially after Doctor Strange already made his concerns known to every hero in the Marvel Universe regarding Captain Marvel learning magic. However, it seems as though Thor just gave Captain Marvel Enchantress’ location with no questions asked. This leads one to wonder what other villain Thor could help Captain Marvel find at the drop of a hat.

Captain Marvel has the physical might to defeat nearly any villain she battles, and since Thor is evidently willing to give her the location of any villain she is after, she can launch an attack on any and all evil doers without their knowledge. This would give her the significant advantage of having the element of surprise. Thor could use his all-seeing knowledge of the cosmos to find all of Captain Marvel’s villains as he did in this issue, and Captain Marvel could then use that knowledge to defeat those villains without them seeing her coming—this would ensure her victory. This proves that Captain Marvel’s ultimate weapon is actually her fellow Avenger, Thor.

Elizabeth Olsen Speaks On Scarlet Witch Rumors

Fans are eager to learn if Elizabeth Olsen will be returning to the MCU as Scarlett Witch, and on June 28th, Olsen and her husband Robbie Arnett appeared on Good Morning America to promote their children's book Hattie Harmony: Worry Detective. The book is about a cat dealing with their first day of school and trying to have a good day.

While the couple did discuss their new creative collaboration, Olsen was also asked what she knows about playing Scarlet Witch again.

Fans are understandably eager to know if the Scarlet Witch will return to the MCU. In the GMA interview, Elizabeth Olsen was asked about the upcoming WandaVision spin-off Agatha: House of Harkness and also about playing Scarlet Witch in a stand-alone film. Olsen said, "I would love to be a part of both of those" and added, "No one tells me anything, and I'm not even hiding a secret because I'm bad at that. I know nothing about my future."

Elizabeth Olsen has played Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in several MCU movies: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2016), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the latest, 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Fans also enjoyed seeing Olsen in the miniseries WandaVision. Although the show ended, Multiverse of Madness seems to set up a WandaVision season 2, which is interesting to think about.

Olsen has starred in many types of films over the course of her career, starting with her breakrole role in the 2011 film Martha Marcy May Marlene as a young woman escaping a cult and dealing with painful and terrible memories. Olsen then starred in the single-take horror movie Silent House, the comedy Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2012), the sweet indie film Liberal Arts (2012), Very Good Girls (2014), Ingrid Goes West (2017), Wind River (2017), and Kodachrone (2017).

Olsen is also starring in the upcoming HBO Max miniseries Love and Death as Candy Montgomery. Olsen stars alongside Patrick Fuget and Jesse Plemons. According to the description on the IMDb page, the series is about "Two church going couples, enjoying small town family life in Texas, until somebody picks up an axe." The series, from David E. Kelly, is about the real life friendship between Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore and Candy's decision to murder Betty.

Wolverine Confirmed Marvel's Worst Romance In The Grossest Way

In the last thing Wolverine ever wanted to see, the hero, unfortunately, confirmed Marvel's worst romance, catching Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver together in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. In one of the grossest romantic pairings Marvel has ever made, the Maximoff brother and sister found love with each other in the alternate Marvel Universe. Sadly for Wolverine, he saw them in the act of passion, which confirmed the relationship with the rest of his heroes.

The Ultimate Universe is Marvel's second-most popular reality, as it allowed creative teams to tell alternate stories of popular heroes with different origins, powers, and motivations. However, during the Ultimates series' last hurrah in Ultimates 3, several storylines in the six-issue miniseries ended up pushing the boundaries of sex, edginess, and grotesqueness in the universe. Namely, when the miniseries romantically paired Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Wolverine was the hero to confirm their incestuous relationship to the rest of the Ultimates superteam.

In Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira's The Ultimates 3 #3 by Marvel Comics, Wolverine warns the Ultimates that Magneto teamed up with Quicksilver to recover the Scarlet Witch's body. Wolverine recounts that when he worked alongside Magneto with the Brotherhood of Mutants, the villain tasked him with killing his son, as he couldn't bear to look at him given his human mother. After a failed attempt at killing Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch rearranges reality to stop Wolverine. In the aftermath, Wolverine tracked the Maximoffs down, discovering that Pietro and Wanda found love "that no one in this world can really understand."

While the Ultimates were already aware of the potential romantic relationship between Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Wolverine's story confirmed Marvel's worst romance to Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Hawkeye even tells Logan that he doesn't "want to understand it" and that the affair was "sick." However, he seems more concerned that the media didn't find out about the sibling mutants' relationship - especially after the world learned that Tony Stark and Black Widow had a sex tape. If you think that entire storyline sounds awful, you'd be right. Unfortunately, Ultimates #3 had little to no redeeming qualities as the gross romance is the most remembered part of the comic's terrible storytelling.

Wolverine saw Marvel's worst romance as it was one of the most disgusting things he had ever witnessed. However, it helped the Ultimates confirm what they were up against regarding the relationship between Pietro and Wanda and fighting to recover her body. Still, Wolverine encountering Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver passionately and romantically embracing one another has to be an image he wished he could immediately forget and never have to speak about again.

Marvel's Perfect MCU X-Men Debut Avoids Eternals' Worst Mistake

Marvel’s introduction of the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe should avoid the mistakes of Eternals (2021) by giving viewers a mutant Disney+ series, instead of another film. Since the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, mutants and the X-Men have been on the cards for Marvel Studios, even mentioned by Kevin Feige, but no details of their introduction into the MCU have yet been released. While an X-Men film seems the likely candidate to introduce them to the MCU, it would be better to start their stories in a Disney+ series.

Audiences have wanted to see the X-Men interact with established MCU characters for years, with their dreams getting one step closer to reality in 2019 after Disney bought back the rights to the characters. But since then, practically no information has been released about when mutants might be introduced into the MCU, who will be cast as which X-Men characters, or how the studio will blend such a massive narrative with a rich history into the already fleshed-out world of the Avengers. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Marvel chief Kevin Feige mentioned that a project involving the mutants was in the works, so now it could be just around the corner, and the opportunity is there for Marvel to avoid previous mistakes.

X-Men films of the past, while helping to revitalize the superhero genre, failed to showcase the individual stories of each character to a depth that audiences wanted to see. Characters such as Rogue, Scott Summers, and Gambit were pushed aside to save space for the likes of Wolverine, Professor X, and Magneto. If Marvel Studios were to introduce the mutant X-Men in yet another film, the same mistakes could be repeated. The use of too many characters in one story would complicate the narrative and confuse audiences – a mistake demonstrated by Eternals (2021), where Marvel tried to introduce all 10 new superheroes, meaning that none got the development they needed. This problem could be solved through the medium of a Disney+ series.

If each of the central members of the X-Men had a dedicated character-focused episode in a Disney+ series, their origin stories could be far better developed without other distractions muddying the waters. Audiences would get a clearer insight into the background of these mutants, becoming better acquainted with each one and paving the way for a potential team-up film or even a team-up in the finale of the series, akin to What If…. Marvel Studios would be well advised to deliver episodes exploring each character’s strengths and abilities, laying the groundwork before bringing them together. This is a formula proven to work as far back as Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ending with The Avengers. As the Disney+ series’ have budgets similar to that of MCU films, the cinematic themes and special effects that go hand-in-hand with these characters wouldn’t be lost in an X-Men series either.

A Disney+ series would allow characters to be better developed and would give audiences a better pay-off when they are brought together in a crossover event. Marvel Studios should learn from the mistakes of the past and give fans the X-Men stories they’ve always desired with well-developed characters and strong backstories. Whether Marvel Studios releases a film based on the mutants or a Disney+ series delving deeper into their individual stories, it surely won’t be too much longer until the X-Men find their home in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Moon Knight: Did The MCU Pick The Right Tone?

Movies based around Marvel Comics used to come from a variety of sources, owned by many different companies and completely unaffected by each other. One by one, every limb of Marvel's on-screen presence has been killed or assimilated into the unending growth of the unstoppable Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Unfortunately, as detractors have pointed out for over a decade, the MCU has trouble differentiating its works in terms of tone. Their stories feel distinct and different, but, as crossover becomes more key to the franchise, less deviation from the cultural hegemony is tolerated. Unfortunately, the MCU's specific tone doesn't fit every work equally.

Moon Knight season one is out and fans are intensely divided. Most have praised Oscar Isaac's performance and elements of the writing, while others have derided the show as too similar to its peers. Some of the harshest criticism has come from hardcore fans of the source material, who were incensed at the series' many substantial changes. The treatment of the Mr. Knight personality was considered particularly offensive to some. The series' marketing is a substantial culprit in this backlash, as the early trailers and posters seemed to be selling a much darker show than the one fans saw. Looking at the comic books that inspired the series does raise some questions about the series' take on the character.

Fans of the Moon Knight comics likely went into the series expecting to see their hero crush criminals and cultists in gory action scenes while swapping through multiple personalities. The story they got focused far more heavily on globe-trotting adventure, comedic bickering, and battles between CGI monsters. The most violent moments took place out of costume and were often skipped over with the series' blackout gimmick. Elements of its presentation seemed deliberately designed to bait and switch comic book fans. Mr. Knight looks note-perfect but acts as a British comic relief character that is almost the exact opposite of the source material. Every time the series seems prepared to let Marc off the leash against a non-CGI foe, it's edited out to preserve the all-important family-friendly presentation.

The most distracting element of this blatant compromise with Disney's squeaky-clean image is the way that it handles Marc's mental state. The depiction of trauma and recovery is often chilling. Kids probably won't feel much when exposed to the heavily cut-down violence, but it's hard to imagine one being unaffected by the flashbacks in the later episodes. The dissociative identity disorder storyline that is extremely central to Marc Spector's character is handled with a great deal of maturity most of the time.

The series occasionally gives in to the MCU's biggest dialogue issue by undercutting its crushing melodrama with a gag, but it's mostly played straight. Watching Marc deal with the possibility that he may have been in a mental institution the entire time is haunting in a way that does not gel with clumsily boxing against CGI jackal beasts. Each of these elements would be fine on its own. Moon Knight feels like the tale of two series in a way that often detracts from both. Moon Knight's Egyptian mythology takes on the standard superhero action film and Marc's psychological horror duel with guilt and madness cannot easily coexist.

This is not to say that Moon Knight's narrative, nor any particular narrative, would be substantially improved by gallons of blood. This isn't an issue of MPAA ratings, it's an issue of consistent tone. The fate of the world battle against an all-powerful crocodile woman fails to feel sincere when it's placed alongside Marc's personal drama. Often one or the other feels tacked on to make both sell. The worst aspect of this problem is that Marvel used to understand how to handle this type of narrative.

Imagine Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, or The Punisher with the stakes, tone, or framing of Moon Knight's action beats. The Marvel Netflix series took a sincere hand with real issues and set their action setpieces to match. The Punisher introduced a purpose to the character while letting Frank blast his way through criminals as always. Daredevil used martial arts action alongside legal procedural drama and neither ever felt out of place. The way Daredevil handled its action scenes, with grimy backdrops, semi-realistic blood, and intensely personal stakes would've perfectly fit the tale of Marc Spector. Those series were technically part of the MCU, but they were always treated as a different wing of the same reality. Every time a character from The Defenders franchise pops up, they feel wildly out of place in the MCU. Marvel has only grown less experimental over the years, sacrificing variety to avoid even the slightest risk.

Moon Knight handles its elements well, but there is always a discordant record scratch as it shifts between its radically different tones. The character would've fared better in Netflix's take on the Marvel Universe and Disney would do well to broaden its horizon.

Reed Richards' Darkest Kill Explains Why Not Every Reality Has Illuminati

Many realities throughout the Marvel multiverse have their own version of the Illuminati, but Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four is to blame for some universes going without. In particular, the Reed Richards of Earth-231 caused his universe’s Illuminati to disband nearly as soon as it began in one of the hero’s darkest acts to date.

The Illuminati stands as a cabal within the Marvel Universe, uniting leaders and heroes of extreme intelligence in secret for the greater good. In Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven’s New Avengers #7, the Illuminati first forms by bringing together Iron Man of the Avengers; Black Bolt of the Inhumans; Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme; Namor, King of Atlantis; Professor X of the X-Men; and the aforementioned Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. The Illuminati would later gain new members such as Captain America, Black Panther and Bruce Banner.

Following the catastrophic events of Civil War and Secret Invasion, the Richards of Marvel’s main universe (Earth-616) builds a device known as The Bridge that allows him to view alternate realities in the hopes of discovering where things went wrong. While scanning the different realities, Richards finds that many end in catastrophe, with the Illuminati seemingly doing more harm than good. In Jonathan Hickman and Sean Chen’s Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3, the Reed Richards of Earth-231 comes to the same conclusion and disturbingly kills all other members of the Illuminati as soon as the group is formed, seeing it as the only way to prevent the danger the party poses.

While the concept of a murderous Reed Richards isn’t a new one, this culling shows the shocking measures the hero will take for what he perceives to be the greater good. It is, however, a moment that informs a lot of Reed’s decisions throughout that era. Reed’s status as one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe often leads him to place major decisions – such as the killing of his friends and allies – on his own shoulders, as he sees himself as the only one able to solve the problem. Though he often makes these decisions to protect his family, this characteristically ironically led the Fantastic Four to momentarily split up due to Reed’s unwavering commitment to the Superhero Registration Act during Civil War.

Perhaps even more alarming, Hickman later implies that many members of the Illuminati could easily come to the same decision as the Richards of Earth-231. Hickman’s run on New Avengers focuses on the Illuminati attempting to stop Incursions, world-threatening collisions with parallel Earths, and taking some pretty drastic measures to do so. Members of the group erase Captain America’s memory, build an arsenal of world bombs and even blow up an occupied planet to save their world. This eventually culminates in a confrontation with Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D., and many Avengers who believe the Illuminati should be tried for their history of controversial decisions. While all of this was done to save their world, these heinous acts show what darkness Reed Richards and the rest of the Illuminati can justify when they think it’s for the greater good.